Wednesday, December 14, 2005

Occasionally you will be called upon to provide a reference for a bad library employee or coworker. Giving a truthful response and illuminating the candidate's shortcomings means that you will continue working with this person indefinitely. No one will every hire them if they know the truth. Fudging a little and making the person sound better than they actually are allows you to pass the loser off to someone else. Always consider your own happiness and opt for the latter strategy.

And on a related note: never trust a reference from a current employer.

You should be able to find something good to be able to say and be truthful about ... if you are Julie Andrews.

Some people are anti-social, brain-dead lazy jack-offs who should not be rehired by anyone. But rather, kept in a minimum security prison for the ineffective and possibly congenitally retarded. I should be the warden.

Must agree with the latter comment. We have a ref librarian (nicknamed "The Dullard" by another colleague) who has been trying to attain escape velocity into management at other libraries for years. Sadly, my all-too-honest boss vouches for him as "well-intentioned," but not "punctual, hard-working, smart, or knowledgeable." So we're stuck with him...probably forever. I'd trade him for some other library's loser at this point.

To get a crap colleague fired, I'd say set them up as a library thief. Have several rare, or just expensive books go "missing" and bribe the library assistants to give eye-witness statements to said crap colleague last being seen in the area and "looking shifty"

I once saw an entire list of references that were technically truthful in reference to bad workers, but didn't sound bad. My favorite, fo the slacker: "You would indeed be fortunate to get this person to work for you." Or for the person who imbibed on the job, "We would often find him loaded with work to do."